‘Queen Bee’ Lil’ Kim says she is not playing Atlanta’s Black Gay Pride in interview

“I had no idea this was happening,” Lil Kim said. “I feel so bad. He basically conned them and got $15,000 out of them.”

Lil Kim played Black Gay Pride last year for the first time as part of Traxx Atlanta’s parties and said she loves her gay fans.

“I love Gay Pride. I’m so upset I’m not going to be there. You should make me the marquee … the hostess of Gay Pride weekend every year,” she said with a laugh.

“I don’t how it happened. I didn’t even know it was this weekend. There’s no way I would never not show up.”

However, Mario Harris, CEO of Wassup N ATL, told Georgia Voice he has never had this kind of problem with booking talent.

He said a contract was signed with a man named Tone and money was paid for Lil Kim to perform Saturday. Harris said they are currently in talks with Lil Kim’s assistant to try to somehow make sure she appears at Black Gay Pride as promised to customers.

“We’ve got to pay whatever to make this happen,” he said. “We’ve never had an artist not show up. We’re in limbo trying to talk to Lil Kim. And I really feel personally she’s trying to shake us for money.”

Harris also theorized that Lil Kim didn’t want to be the “opening act” for red-hot artist Nicki Minaj who is scheduled to play at 3 a.m. at the Freight Depot as part of Traxx’s events for this weekend.

A feud apparently broke out between the two when Lil Kim allegedly said in June at several performances that Minaj has not paid proper respect to her.

“There’s this thing between the two of them,” Harris said.

Harris said the booking agent he used, known as Tone is known as Lil Kim’s booking agent and is “pretty reputable.” He said, for example, he also books for Rihanna. In the promotion’s business, Harris said that it is typical there is no direct contact with the artists and instead their booking agents are utilized.

“She’s saying Tone is no longer her booking agent. She goes on about Tone [in the interview] — how does she know he has the money? I’ve never told anyone, not even my staff, how much we pay for talent,” Harris said. “If Kim says someone is taking her money and she knows he has our money — why hasn’t she told people how to contact her?

“This makes no sense. I don’t know why Kim is trying to do this. I think she’s just going to squeeze more money out of us,” Harris added.

Harris said there is talk out there that Lil Kim is willing to do a walk through for $10,000, but he said that’s not possible because a performance was promised.

“Our customers don’t want that,” he said. He noted her appearance at Black Gay Pride is still being advertised on a web fansite.

Harris said if a deal cannot be struck with Lil Kim to perform at Black Gay Pride, they are already in the process of booking another talent. But he said Lil Kim pretty much has Wassup N ATL in a bind and they are willing to “pay whatever it costs” to have her perform.

This year Wassup N ATL also has Kelly Rowland, Fantasia as well as Tony Award winner Melba Moore performing at their events.